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4 p.m. Diving / 5 p.m. Swimming
Swimming & Diving
vs Davidson
Friday, February 17
College Park, Md.
All Day
Duke University
at
Day Three
Ness Breaks Backstroke Record To Lead Season-Best Medley Relay
2/17/2006 12:00:00 AM | Swimming & Diving
COLLEGE PARK, Md. -- Swimming in her third competition Friday, senior Katie Ness set a Duke record in the 100 backstroke while leading off on the Blue Devils' season-best 400 medley relay performance at the 2006 Atlantic Coast Conference Women's Swimming & Diving Championships at the University of Maryland. Ness split 55.33 in the opening leg, guiding the team of Nora Stupp, Emily Kelly and Anna Rogers to eighth place in 3:51.52.
Ness already held the Duke record in the 100 back but had not beaten 55.47 since her freshman year. The Blue Devils have thrown out three school records -- one on each day of this year's ACC Championships -- and Ness has been a part of two of them -- the 100 backstroke Friday and the 200 medley relay Wednesday. The performance by Ness Friday marked the third straight day that a Duke record has fallen to close the night's events at the ACC meet.
Earlier Friday, Ness improved on her preliminary time, which was already an NCAA B cut, to finish fourth in the 100 butterfly finals in a season-best time of 54.93 Friday. Ness also improved on last year's time of 55.12, which put her in sixth place in 2005. The Worthington, Ohio, native was following a fourth-place finish in the 200 IM Thursday.
Following suit, fellow senior Nora Stupp improved on her season-best preliminary time in the 100 breaststroke bonus finals, swimming a 1:06.01 to take second in that round. In the next event, freshman Erin Frizzell continued the improvement trend, breaking her personal best she set in the afternoon's preliminaries by .02 seconds, finishing in 58.62.
Sophomore Danielle Spearman set a career best by touching in 57.35 in the 100 backstroke consolation finals, just under two-tenths of a second faster than her previous personal best achieved in the preliminaries Friday afternoon. Spearman's personal record before entering the 2006 ACC meet was set at last year's ACC's, when she swam a 57.71 in the bonus heat. The Bethlehem, Pa., native came in third in the consolation heat for 11th place overall.
Eight other career bests were set in Friday's preliminaries, including junior Michelle Aristeo (4:34.28) in the 400 IM, Frizzell (1:00.0) and Julia Lewis (1:00.55) in the 100 butterfly, Rogers (1:55.79) in the 200 freestyle, Alison Sundberg (1:09.5) and Amanda Rowland (1:11.56) in the 100 breaststroke and Stephanie Taylor (1:01.9) and Sara Reynolds (1:04.04) in the 100 backstroke.
The ACC Swimming & Diving Championships will conclude Saturday at Maryland's Campus Recreation Center with preliminaries at 11 a.m. and finals at 7 p.m. The schedule is as follows.
11 a.m. Prelims
200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly and platform diving
7 p.m. Finals
1650 freestyle, 200 backstroke, 100 freestyle, 200 breaststroke, 200 butterfly, 400 freestyle relay
-d-u-k-e-
Players Mentioned
Back/Free
/ Swimming & Diving
Backstroke
/ Swimming & DivingFree/Fly/IM
/ Swimming & DivingBack/Free
/ Swimming & DivingFly/IM
/ Swimming & DivingBackstroke
/ Swimming & DivingBack/Free
/ Swimming & DivingFreestyle
/ Swimming & DivingBack/Free
/ Swimming & DivingFree/Breast/IM
/ Swimming & DivingFreestyle
/ Swimming & DivingBackstroke
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